Gregori snorts. "What they don't know won't hurt them, eh? At least, not 'til after we've had our spirits ripped from our bodies and our corpses animated by angry ghosts intent on destroying Ustalav and the world starting with this little town." He smiles feebly at Mistress Lorrimor. "Sorry, not exactly polite dinner conversation. But if we're voting I say we just do it. It's easier to ask for forgiveness afterwards. Success is a powerful vindication. 'Course, if we fail it won't matter much." He shrugs as if he's comfortable or at the least accustomed to the thought of his impending demise.

Halál's gaze settles on Marshan as the warrior speaks. He regards the man gravely for a moment before taking a deep breath and beginning the most impassioned - and longest - speech those gathered have heard from his beak.

"Do I want to ask permission of the town's legal and spiritual authorities before I go rummaging around in the sacred ground where their loved ones are buried? Gods, yes!

"I think we need to decide if we're working with these folk or in spite of them, and act that way. My vote, if we're voting and working together, is that we work with them. First, it's their town. Second, they hold the keys to a lot of potentially useful information; being on their good side is in our benefit. Third, I'd rather not end up on the wrong side of a lynch mob if we step wrong and they decide we're the ones behind the Professor's death, or the desecration of the statue, or any of the hundred and one other things that they might be in the mood to blame us for. And finally, I'd not want them digging through my friends' and loved ones' graves without my approval; I'd like to treat them the same way as long as we have that luxury.

"I want to find out what happened to the Professor. As his friend, I want that. As a servant of Pharasma, I want to find out if there's anything more to this zombie business than a couple of dead bodies deciding they were happier moving around. It's Ustalav, so there probably is more to it, and it's my duty to the Lady to put a stop to that crap. I'll go about those things as diligently and ruthlessly as I have to, and I'll work around the law if necessary. But until it becomes necessary, I'd rather keep the law on my side."

As he winds down, the Tengu sits back in his chair and looks around more calmly. "I don't have a plan B."

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
-- H.L. Mencken

"My original thought was after giving our statements, to casually inform the sheriff with a "We have been patiently researching for too long, and are getting nowhere. So we will be stopping by the graveyard to pick up a Pharasman stash of tools that will help protect us from the spirits, and then we are going to investigate the prison where the Professor fell."and then continue on about going to the prison, getting directions and such. If or when he asks how we know about the stash,"it is written in the Professor's journal."should be enough info for him. More likely he is going to object to us going to the prison, and then I would counter with,"Do you want to investigate that haunted place and risk your own neck? I am honor bound to the Professor, but if you want to take my place, risking your life..."

And if he asks about who owns those tools,"The Professor's notes say they were put there by the Pharasman church long ago. He suspects the current priests don't even know they are there. The birdman is an oracle of Pharasma, and as such has the right to use them as I see it. Do you object?"

If my conversation with the sheriff goes well, he will come out with an understanding of
A ~ We are going into the prison.
B ~ And we are going to go in prepared with what tools we know are available.
C ~ If someone else wants to go in, in our place, they are welcome to.
D ~ Inaction is something this soldier personally is not going to accept.

If the sheriff wants to deny us the tools, he can. If he wants to get the priest's permission first, he can. The authority in town that wants to talk to us has been informed. The authority in town that does not want to deal with us at all has been left alone. We could ask every town folk in town for permission, but that will get is nowhere, and could tip our hand to someone involved.

My plan was a `We are going to do this unless you object .` dealing with one authority.

The second plan was a `We beggingly ask permission of two people in authority.' More polite, but higher degree of being shot down, forcing us to go to the prison unprotected.

Gregori's thought of "just do it", while I like it, leaves us open the most to Halál's worries of the consequences. So, we should probably push that one to a last resort.

Another option is more wandering town, talking to folks, and doing more research.

Any one have a fifth plan to throw out on the table? I'll go with any plan we come up with. I am aiming for best result.

Lady Lorrimor, you have lived here a long time. What are your thoughts?"

"Now that I understand; such reasoning I can swallow better than your brief - and somewhat sarcastic - previous response. It seems that the sheriff manages the good Father fairly well, so while your approach is slightly more pushy than I prefer I can surely live with it."

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
-- H.L. Mencken

"What can we do about the zombie incident? We hacked up the zombie and stopped his wandering. The priest and his people found him and know what grave the zombie crawled out of on his own. I assume the priest knows who he put into that grave. We could ask who it was, but not knowing the people of this town, that doesn't give us a reference to continue investigating. If we could find his friends or acquaintances, investigating them may prove difficult, as we are the strangers in town. And, it would surely tip a hand to our unknown enemy."

"I assume the priest's people destroyed the zombie's body. Even if they didn't, the face was mangled so it is unlikely a speak with dead would work to gather information from it. All I see is a dead end. I just don't know what else we can learn from it."

"Firvin, do you have a specific piece of information that you are looking for about that incident?"

"As to Zokar, Oh yes, there can be a lot to learn there. I vote yes for going back to the tavern tonight."

"As to getting friendlier with the old priest, sure, try, it can't hurt. I am just probably not the best one to try that. I assume whoever is going to try that would do so in the morning. I wouldn't expect that old priest to keep late night office hours."

"As to telling the sheriff we have a plan and then doing it, or asking the sheriff if he could ask the priest for permission, that question is still up for discussion."

OCC: Glad to see things back on track.
"I'm sorry I have lived her for a while but if your not born here than you are always an outsider. My father knew a few of the town folk and they would visit but mostly just to seek his advice on one matter or another." Kendra says to Marshan. "Zokar was a friend of my fathers so maybe he might know something useful."

The dinner winds down after the discussion and everyone decides drinks at The Laughing Demon would not go amiss. But at The Demon Zokar proves to be little help as he wasn't even born yet at the time of the Harrowstone fire.

After leaving The Demon the group makes it way through Ravengro back towards The Lorrimor House. Suddenly a hoarse scream comes from between two buildings, the hoarse scream of a man dying, of a man being killed.

Firvinianna Laali, Half Drow Elven Sorceress

Firvinianna looks at Marshan with an eyebrow raised on his reaction to investigating the zombies.

"The source of the zombie was not been discerned. Does this not concern you? We could look around The Restlands at night again, if no other ideas can be thought of."
Later, she thanks Zokar for his time, despite him being useless on the knowledge of history.

She follows after the others, alert for trouble.___________________________________________

Five minutes later...

The sheriff drops the blanket that covers the small demon like creature and stands to face the group gathered in the home of William Dotter (the man they saved) and his wife Elise. (the screaming woman)

"Once more Elise if you please, tell me what you saw and heard." the sheriff says going to the spot where the demon dropped through the roof looking up at it.

"Well, it is like I said before sheriff," the woman starts to say her throat a bit horse from before, so she takes another sop of the brandy in her hand. "Me and Will were asleep when a thumping on the roof woke us both. Will he gets out of bed and grumpily pulls on his trousers and then heads to the back door. Said it was probably coons trying to get in the house. I takes and made my way to the bedroom doorway and watched him go out the backdoor leaving it open." she looks to the man and smiles.

"I was just about to call out and scold him for doing that when I heard him scream. I went slowly towards the door but I heard strange voices hollering before hearing someone running towards the back of the house. I bolted back into the bedroom and hid around the corner there." she adds nodding to the doorway of the room.

"Then I here something in the common room and I look out and saw that thing standing in me house, And it weren't no coon," she gestures to the blanket covered fae. "I was so scarred I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe. And then the front door comes crashing in and I saw a huge bird, in a hat, barging in and I screamed bloody murder."

"I know, Kelmen heard it and came and woke me," the sheriff says with a smile. "And then?"
"Well it got really confusing and there was so much going on everywhere. I saw the donkey come in and bite at the thing. Followed by the priest and then an axe flew across the room and stuck into my wall there." she says pointing to the small gash in the wood. "Then there was a blast of fire all around and magical light, I just... just. And before I knew it it was quiet and the priest was asking me if I was alright and the others were bringing in my Will. The priest healed him and that's about when you showed up at our door."

"And you four," the sheriff says looking at the group in aspiration. "I still have a report to work on from the monument incident and now this? How much more work are you planning on piling on top my desk this week?"

Shaking his head he apologizes, "Sorry, I didn't mean that. It is just that there is some very strange things going on in what was a quiet town not a week ago. Do you have anything to add? Since we have a witness here now I think we can get this settled quickly."

Will speaks up, "That was the thing that attacked me sheriff. I'll never forget the look of something like that. And if they all hadn't come along I would probably be dead for sure."

Firvinianna Laali, Half Drow Elven Sorceress

Firvinianna looks back at the sheriff with an eyebrow raised when he mentions about them causing him more work.

"You know our presence in Ravengro is proving to be a good thing, sheriff. If we had not been here, you would have a zombie runnig around causing havoc and this creature doing Calistria knows what."
The dark-skinned elf is just making conversation, not giving the sheriff a hard time. Secretly she doesn't care that he has paperwork to do, that's his problem.